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In this volume noted Evangelical historians and theologians examine the charge of the supposed ""ahistorical nature of Evangelicalism"" and provide a critical, historical examination of the relationship between the Protestant evangelical heritage and the early church. In doing so, the contributors show the long and deeply historical rootedness of the Protestant Reformation and its Evangelical descendants, as well as underscoring some inherent difficulties such as the Mercersburg and Oxford movements. In the second part of the volume, the discussion moves forward, as evangelicals rediscover the early church-its writings, liturgy, catechesis, and worship-following the ""temporary amnesia"" of the earlier part of the twentieth century.Most essays are accompanied by a substantial response prompting discussion or offering challenges and alternative readings of the issue at hand, thus allowing the reader to enter a conversation already in progress and engage the topic more fully. This bidirectional look-understanding the historical background on the one hand and looking forward to the future with concrete suggestions on the other-forms a more full-orbed argument for readers who want to understand the rich and deep relationship between Evangelicalism and the early church.""This unusually interesting volume combines bracing historical engagement with rare theological wisdom. Its chapters carefully explore why, how, under what conditions, and how much contemporary evangelicals should try to appropriate guidance from the first Christian centuries. A particularly helpful feature is the paired chapters that promote the best kind of respectful give and take on contested or difficult questions. The book is a gem of edifying insight.""-Mark NollFrancis A. McAnaney Professor of History, University of Notre Dame""Here is a collection of essays that invites the reader to wrestle along with the authors over the query why evangelicals have not embraced more fully the early church as part of their theological and ecclesiastical legacy. It is certainly a question of importance. The appropriation of the early church by essentially free-church segments of contemporary Christianity remains at the experimental stage however much momentum it has gained over the last twenty years. Of varying degrees valuable insights are offered in this book with which pastoral and academic leadership needs to grapple for the future of evangelicalism.""-D. H. WilliamsProfessor of Patristics and Historical Theology, Baylor University""In 1994, Mark Noll threw down the gauntlet in The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind challenging evangelical churches to overcome anti-intellectualism and broaden their engagement with a variety of intellectual traditions, not only in theology, but in other disciplines in the humanities and sciences. Surely one sign of an opening of the evangelical mind is the expanding interest over the last decade among evangelical scholars in the Catholic and Orthodox theological traditions of late antiquity and their value as a resource of Biblical exegesis and theological reflection. Evangelicals and the Early Church, as a collection of excellent essays by evangelicals about the relevance of patristic thought for evangelicals, is invaluable both for evangelicals wanting to integrate early Christian theology into a distinctly evangelical articulation of the Gospel and for non-evangelicals interested in understanding the state of the evangelical mind at the beginning of the twenty-first century.""-J. Warren SmithAssociate Professor of Historical Theology, Duke University""Why should evangelicals be concerned about the post-New Testament church? This volume addresses this fundamental question in several ways: by probing the reasons why earlier evangelicals focused on the church fathers, by examining some of the pitfalls of relying on the patristic period, and by reflecting in detail on the relation between Scripture, the church fathers, and e

This volume takes its title from the first-century Christian catechism called the Didache: ""Even as this broken bread was scattered over the hills . . . gathered together and became one, so let Your Church be gathered together from the ends of the earth.""For Christians today, these words remain relevant in an era of massive human movements (voluntary and coerced), hybrid identities, and wide-ranging cultural interactions.How do modern Christians live as both a ""scattered"" and ""gathered"" people?How do they live out the tension between ecclesial universality (catholicity) and particularity (distinctive ways of being church in a given culture and context)?Do Christians today constitute a ""diaspora,"" a people dispersed across borders and cultures that nonetheless maintains a sense of commonality and mission?Scattered and Gathered: Catholics in Diaspora explores these questions through the work of fourteen scholars in different fields and from different corners of the world. Whether through reflections on Zimbabweans in Britain, Levantines in North America, or the remote island people of Chiloe now living in other parts of Chile, they guide readers along the winding road of insights and challenges facing many of today''s Christians.""Exciting and fascinating, this collection maps the complex global footprint of Christianity in an era of mass movement propelled by constantly evolving religious, political, social, and cultural dynamics, interactions, and tensions. This book is a treasure trove of theological and ethical resources for reimagining and understanding the global phenomenon of migration and diaspora for faith, community, and devotion in the twenty-first century."" --Agbonkhianmeghe E. Orobator, SJ, Hekima University College Jesuit School of Theology, Nairobi""Michael Budde has assembled an extraordinary group of contributors in this superb work of cutting-edge practical, theological, and missiological reflection. The essays significantly move the conversation forward about how migration and growing intercultural encounters are transforming religion and the churches perhaps more than ever before in human history. The writers are not only accomplished in migration studies, theology, and social research, but also in the practices and community life of the church itself. This volume provides more than the look of outsiders. If one desires to grasp the crucial trends and implications for Christianity of today''s unprecedented movement of people in a time of epochal change, one need look no further than this excellent volume.""--Allan Figueroa Deck, SJ, Distinguished Scholar of Pastoral Theology and Latino Studies, Loyola Marymount UniversityMichael L. Budde is Professor of Catholic Studies and Political Science at DePaul University in Chicago, where he is also Senior Research Professor in the Center for World Catholicism and Intercultural Theology. His published work focuses on ecclesiology, political economy, and world Christianity; recent works include The Borders of Baptism and the coedited Witness of the Body.

The study of Maximus the Confessor''s thought has flourished in recent years: international conferences, publications and articles, new critical editions and translations mark a torrent of interest in the work and influence of perhaps the most sublime of the Byzantine Church Fathers. It has been repeatedly stated that the Confessor''s thought is of eminently philosophical interest. However, no dedicated collective scholarly engagement with Maximus the Confessor as a philosopher has taken place--and this volume attempts to start such a discussion. Apart from Maximus'' relevance and importance for philosophy in general, a second question arises: should towering figures of Byzantine philosophy like Maximus the Confessor be included in an overview of the European history of philosophy, or rather excluded from it--as is the case today with most histories of European philosophy? Maximus'' philosophy challenges our understanding of what European philosophy is. In this volume, we begin to address these issues and examine numerous aspects of Maximus'' philosophy--thereby also stressing the interdisciplinary character of Maximian studies.""This groundbreaking volume correctly identifies an odious convention in the division of disciplines: while major thinkers such as Augustine or Aquinas self-evidently make their way into being part of philosophy''s legacy, equally major thinkers that are categorized as ''religious'' are exiled to the hermetically sealed domain of theology, even if their contribution to classical philosophical problems is unique, pertinent, and most fecund. The book at hand delivers on its promise of reclaiming Maximus the Confessor for philosophy and of recognizing his oeuvre as a critical contribution to its history; as such, it is one of those endeavors that contribute to nothing less than a paradigm change.""--Grigory Benevich, The Russian Christian Academy for the Humanities""This rich and diverse set of essays goes far in demonstrating not only the depth and nuance of Maximus the Confessor''s philosophical theology in its own context but its relevance to a wide array of contemporary theological concerns. They indicate very well why the study of Maximus has experienced a profound renaissance in the past several years, as this is a thinker whose stature matches the far more studied figures of Augustine and Aquinas. From metaphysics to theological anthropology, from apophaticism to ethics, this collection is a fine contribution to the expanding research on Maximus and will further generate interest in the Confessor among historical theologians, philosophers, and scholars from a wide variety of disciplines.""--Paul M. Blowers, Emmanuel Christian Seminary at Milligan CollegeSotiris Mitralexis is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the City University of Istanbul and Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Winchester. Georgios Steiris is Assistant Professor of Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Marcin Podbielski is Editor-in-Chief of Forum Philosophicum, an international journal for philosophy, and teaches philosophy at the Jesuit University Ignatianum in Cracow, Poland. Sebastian Lalla is Assistant Professor (Privatdozent) at the Freie Universitat Berlin''s Institute of Philosophy and Guest Professor of Philosophy at the National University of Mongolia.

If prophets are called to unveil and expose the illegitimacy of those principalities masquerading as ""the right"" and purportedly using their powers for ""the good,"" then Will D. Campbell is one of the foremost prophets in American religious history. Like Clarence Jordan and Dorothy Day, Campbell incarnates the radical iconoclastic vocation of standing in contraposition to society, naming and smashing the racial, economic, and political idols that seduce and delude.Despite an action-packed life, Campbell is no activist seeking to control events and guarantee history''s right outcomes. Rather, Campbell has committed his life to the proposition that Christ has already set things right. Irrespective of who one is, or what one has done, each human being is reconciled to God and one another, now and forever. History''s most scandalous message is, therefore, ""Be reconciled!"" because once that imperative is taken seriously, social constructs like race, ethnicity, gender, and nationality are at best irrelevant and at worst idolatrous.Proclaiming that far too many disciples miss the genius of Christianity''s good news (the kerygma) of reconciliation, this Ivy League-educated preacher boldly and joyfully affirms society''s so-called least one, cultivating community with everyone from civil rights leaders and Ku Klux Klan militants, to the American literati and exiled convicts. Except for maybe the self-righteous, none is excluded from the beloved community.For the first time in nearly fifty years, Campbell''s provocative Race and Renewal of the Church is here made available. Gayraud Wilmore called Campbell''s foundational work ""an unsettling reading experience,"" but one that articulates an unwavering ""confidence in the victory which God can bring out of the weakness of the church.""""Richard Goode is at it again, much like Will Campbell before him. Both of these southern Christian iconoclasts have helped me to appreciate what Goode calls ''the genius of Radical Christianity.'' I recommend this book as an inspiring introduction to Campbell''s life, prophetic witness, and to all for which he stood. May it embolden others to stand against ''the principalities and powers of the world.''""--Douglas A. Sweeneyauthor of The American Evangelical Story""Here is a book whose radical fidelity to the kingdom of God will shake you to the core. Drawing on the life and teachings of Will Campbell, Goode explains, for example, why Jesus ''was a traitor'' whose ''Way is to commit treason,'' and why there is finally no hope for principalities and powers like the PTA, the Pentagon, Communism, the Methodist Church, or the United States of America. If this book doesn''t turn your world upside-down, then either you missed the point or you''re not serious about following Jesus.""--Richard T. Hughesauthor of Christian America and the Kingdom of GodWill D. Campbell was a Baptist preacher in Taylor, Louisiana, for two years before taking the position of Director of Religious Life at the University of Mississippi from 1954 to 1956. Forced to leave the university because of his ardent Civil Rights participation, Campbell served on the National Council of Churches in New York as a race relations consultant. Campbell worked closely with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis, and Andrew Young toward bettering race relations. Campbell''s Brother to a Dragonfly earned him the Lillian Smith Prize, the Christopher Award, and a National Book Award nomination. The Glad River won a first-place award from the Friends of American Writers in 1982. His works have also won a Lyndhurst Prize and an Alex Haley Award. Richard C. Goode is Professor of History at Lipscomb University in Nashville, and coordinates the Lipscomb University program at the Tennessee Prison for Women.

FEATURING:Judith ButlerLia ChavezKatherine James D. S. Martin Thomas NailPLUS:What Does Where You''re From Matter? * Ta-Nehisi Coates and the Power of Lament * Sing More Like a Girl * Jesus Doesn''t Want Me for a Sunbeam * Occupied Identity * What''s So Holy about Matrimony?AND MORE . . .""We the people . . ."" So begins the familiar first line to the Preamble of the United States Constitution. But even in its initial context, in a document intended to be a manifesto of hope and freedom, the matter of who exactly was to be included in this ""we"" was unclear and contested. First-person pronouns (i.e., I and we) roll off the tongue-or onto parchment paper-with ease, but their common use often belies an underlying complexity. Who am I? Who are we? Who does my theology say that I am? Identity is at the same time essential to life and yet also deeply contested, problematic, and enigmatic. The world may be becoming more one and, yet, it seems also to be becoming more different, fragmented, agonistic, and isolated. In this issue of The Other Journal, we explore the valences of identity, both individual and communal, personal and public. We take up the theme of identity in multiple ways, examining its interconnections with gender and race, the dissolution and reconstitution of borders, and, yes, even the 2016 presidential campaign. The issue features essays by Derek Brown, Zach Czaia, Ryan Dueck, Julie M. Hamilton, Peter Herman, Zen Hess, Kimberly Humphrey, Katherine James, Russell Johnson, Sus Long, Willow Mindich, Angela Parker, Taylor Ross, and Erick Sierra; interviews by Stephanie Berbec and Zachary Thomas Settle with Judith Butler and Thomas Nail, respectively; poetry by T. M. Lawson, D. S. Martin, Oluwatomisin Oredein, and Erin Steinke; performance art by Lia Chavez; and photography by Jennifer Jane Simonton, Pilar Timpane, and Mark Wyatt.

Many preachers and teachers of preaching talk about the gospel; few name it. Theologies of the Gospel in Context assembles a gifted group of homileticians who think that preachers need to be able to articulate the gospel not ""in general,"" but in a certain time and place, in context. They consider what gospel sounds like for people under oppression, in capitalist economies, in neocolonial contexts, for survivors of trauma, and for disestablished mainline churches marred by racism. Preachers will appreciate these preacher/scholars'' desire to articulate the gospel with clarity, especially since the term is so often left unexplained. Homileticians will see a new genre of doing their work as teachers and researchers in preaching: a vision that helps preaching see itself not just as an adjunct to exegesis or communication, but a place of doing theology. In these pages homiletics is more than technique, it is a truly theological discipline.""This third volume in the important The Promise of Homiletical Theology series brings together a group of outstanding interpreters of contexts and situations in order to broaden and deepen our understanding of the theological nature of preaching. The result is a new and vital awareness of the expansive scene in which preachers are called upon to name the reality of ''gospel'' in today''s world.""--John S. McClure, Charles G. Finney Professor of Preaching and Worship, Vanderbilt Divinity School  ""The six essays included in this volume . . . provide preachers with profound theological insights into ''naming gospel'' through distinctive contextual lenses.""    --Eunjoo Mary Kim, Professor of Homiletics and Liturgics, Iliff School of Theology ""The gospel is not the gospel of Jesus Christ unless it is enfleshed in the world in particular contexts. The homileticians in this collection teach this and challenge us to remember that without the gospel, homiletics is a dead discipline and preaching is a vain task. Readers will walk away from these pages knowing that homiletical theology has a heart and that heart beats to the rhythm of the gospel.""--Luke A. Powery, Dean of Duke University Chapel, Associate Professor of Homiletics, Duke University ""With yet another installment in The Promise of Homiletical Theology series, David Schnasa Jacobsen has established himself as the leading homiletical sage of contemporary homiletics. Conferring wisdom and pulling together a diverse cohort of emerging and veteran guild scholars, Jacobsen weaves together a revealing tapestry of essays that attend to the effects of colonialism, modernity, race, and capitalism on preaching.""--Kenyatta R. Gilbert, Associate Professor of Homiletics, Howard University, author of A Pursued Justice: Black Preaching from the Great Migration to Civil RightsDavid Schnasa Jacobsen is professor of the practice of homiletics and director of the Homiletical Theology Project at Boston University School of Theology, where he leads the PhD concentration in homiletics and practical theology. He is author of Preaching in the New Creation: The Promise of New Testament Apocalyptic Texts (1999) and co-author of Preaching Luke-Acts (2001), Kairos Preaching: Speaking Gospel to the Situation (2009), and Mark in the Fortress Biblical Preaching Commentaries Series (2014).

Over the past two centuries the Christian faith has spread to all continents. Although more global than ever, Christians are religious minorities in most societies. Religious freedom is hardly universal. In the past fifty years, millions of people have been uprooted from their traditional homelands in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Some have emigrated to Western Europe and North America. The West has become the scene of cultural, linguistic, and religious variety on a scale unimagined in 1900. Today, the full range of faiths and religious practices from all continents are present in Europe and North America. Christians are challenged to come to terms with this changed situation. These developments have intensified religious plurality. Christians all over the world are being urged to understand and engage with this new situation. This volume highlights this new reality and specifies some sources for engagement, not least among them the Judeo-Christian scriptures--fundamental to all ""Christianities""--that emerged out of religious plural contexts. On the basis of their faith in the Triune God disclosed in this text, all followers of Jesus Christ must interact with these opportunities in today''s radically context-sensitive world.""While the relativistic ideology of religious pluralism has been rightly subject to critique for the last generation, evangelical theology has yet to come to grips with the fact of religious plurality and its implications for Christian theology and witness in the present time. Shenk and his colleagues here provide historical, missiological, and global perspectives on this phenomenon, not only showing what we can learn from how others before us have responded, but also indicating how the plurality of our neighbors can be a source of our own revitalization. The cases covered in this book will never be dated!""--Amos Yong, author of Hospitality & the Other: Pentecost, Christian Practices, and the Neighbor (2008)""It takes a plurality of theologians to deal with the complexity of the world''s plurality of religions. Wilbert Shenk and Richard Plantinga have assembled an all-star cast, and they have delivered wisdom that we all need to hear, read, and act upon. A must-read for anyone interested in Christian mission in the twenty-first century.""--Terry C. Muck, scholar of religion (with research interests in Theravada Buddhism); comparative missiologist; professor, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary (1990-2000) and Asbury Theological Seminary (2000-2012)""Considering that Western Christianity is increasingly confronted with religious plurality, it was an excellent idea of my colleagues Shenk and Plantinga to publish a collective volume on the encounter with religious belief systems such as primal religions, Hinduism, and Islam, taking into account phenomena such as diversity and migration. The volume excels in combining scholarly expertise with faith commitment. It challenges people in church and society, and helps Christians in the West and East to rethink missions in a rapidly changing global setting.""--Jan A. B. Jongeneel, Professor Emeritus of Missiology, Utrecht UniversityWilbert R. Shenk, Senior Professor of Mission History and Contemporary Culture, Fuller School of Intercultural Studies, Pasadena, California. Among his publications are Changing Frontiers of Mission and Enlarging the Story: Perspectives on Writing World Christian History. Richard J. Plantinga, Professor of Religion, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Among his publications is Christianity and Plurality.

Philip Turner''s contributions as a leader and thinker in Christian missions and social ethics are here engaged by an array of friends and colleagues. Turner''s scholarly and clerical career spans a key era of transition in American and world Christianity, and his thinking and teaching about the intersection between ecclesial and civil life have encouraged several generations of Christian theologians and ministers. The essays in this collection touch on key topics in which Turner has been involved: cross-cultural missions, social relations in terms of family and procreation, ecclesiology, scriptural interpretation, the nature of the public good, and the character of a human life before God. Turner has been a pioneer, within the Anglican world especially, in promoting what has been called a ""generous orthodoxy,"" and these essays by prominent theologians from America and the United Kingdom extend his witness in lively and fruitful ways.""This book contains theology inspired by life, not simply the life of a particular modern saint, but the lives of saints, of the communities that saint indwelled. It is a life rooted in the Bible, spiritual disciplines, the learning and transmitting of wisdom from and into the world. The book explores the issue of the sufficiency of the gospel of love, played out in the issues of public debate. Themes include: the Old Testament as speaking realistically of the impoverished church, the reflection on experience in a biblical key, e.g. that repentance includes knowledge as it seeks objectivity, to know what, and how, and why wrong was done. The gracious reply by the honorand itself embodies the virtue of communal and ecclesial theology.""--Mark W. Elliott, Professor of Historical and Biblical Theology, School of Divinity, University of St. Andrews""Philip Turner is an extraordinary missionary, priest, and scholar. His high-caliber theology of mission, rooted in Uganda and the Scriptures, ricocheted around North America. This book of honorable Anglican theology, tuned in friendship, is nourishing for all.""--Graham Kings, Mission Theologian in the Anglican Communion, and Honorable Fellow of Durham University""This impressive set of essays does justice to the far ranging interests of the subject here celebrated. Philip Turner is, as Ephraim Radner notes in his Introduction, ''a Christian missionary, Anglican priest, scholar, and . . . [a] prophet of the Gospel."" A central theme of the essays is what Turner identifies in his Afterword as ''a red thread that connects the moral reflection to which I have devoted myself over the years''--''the necessary connection between the Gospel of Christ and the way in which we are called to live both ""in Christ"" and within the societies of which we are a part.''""--Robert W. Prichard, Arthur Lee Kinsolving Professor of Christianity in America, Virginia Theological Seminary""Philip Turner has been the teacher of a generation of pastors and theologians on two continents, inspiring many of us in our ministries through his intellectual engagement with the Christian tradition and his willingness to grapple with the implications of the Gospel. This fine collection of essays is a reminder of his continuing influence, and a sign of hope for the church."" --John Bauerschmidt, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of TennesseeEphraim Radner is Professor of Historical Theology at Wycliffe College at the University of Toronto. His recent publications include A Brutal Unity: The Spiritual Politics of the Christian Church (2012), Time and the Word: Figural Reading of the Christian Scriptures (2016), and A Time to Keep: Theology, Mortality, and the Shape of a Human Life (2016).

If we see ourselves as Earth rather than Earth as existing for us our perspective is transformed. A variety of religious, philosophical, cultural, and political self-perceptions that dominate our sense of human identity are deeply challenged by this shift in perspective. John Locke''s doctrine of Earth as human ""property"" has been central to current presuppositions about our selves: justified on the grounds of our possessing unique, divinely bestowed, rational abilities. But today, the effects of that doctrine on Earth''s resource base and on its other-than-human creatures directly challenge such assumptions. At the same time contemporary scientific findings about the evolution of earthly life demonstrate that while we belong to Earth and nowhere else, Earth does not belong to us. Exploring this role reversal raises fundamental questions about current theological, philosophical, scientific, and economic presuppositions that underpin the ""business as usual"" viewpoint and human-centered aims of contemporary policies and lifestyles. It takes us beyond hierarchical Christian and philosophical doctrines toward a deeper, Earth-focused and peace-based understanding of what it means to be human today.""Exploring Earthiness is an inspiring call for a fundamental change in how we relate with the ecology and spirit of our planet. At its core, Anne Primavesi asks us to shift from the dying, yet pervasive, worldview that nature belongs to humanity and move toward a sense of ourselves as people who come from the soil, air, and water of our home: Earth. A sustainable future for human and more-than-human communities requires nothing less.""--Tim Leduc, author of Climate, Culture, Change: Inuit and Western Dialogues with a Warming North""With relentless clarity Anne Primavesi bares the historical, cultural, and religious roots of our ecological crisis. . . . Increasing injustice as well as climatic and other dangerous global change reveal the inescapable need to scrutinize and transform our human self-understanding, and to disabuse us from the fatal misconception of owning the earth. With critical acuteness . . . she encourages us to convert this insight into alternative, sustainable life and thought styles.""--Sigurd Bergmann, Founder, European Forum for the Study of Religion and the Environment""The earth is one, a living entity. Our survival as a species depends on earth''s well-being, yet today the devastating global impact of human consumption threatens all life on earth. In this brilliant analysis, Anne Primavesi exposes the mental categories that undergird and justify the Western anthropocentric worldview, arguing persuasively for the need to embrace rather than transcend our earthliness. This is a critically needed book to change minds.""--Dan Spencer, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, University of Montana""Anne Primavesi has written an important, thoughtful, and timely book. . . . Our context as thinking creatures does not give us justification for thinking ourselves apart from the planet, but rather [it] urges us to think about how our thoughts emerge from the planetary community and return to affect that community. Primavesi helps us think about our ''earthiness'' as bodies among other bodies on an evolving, living planet.""--Whitney Bauman, Assistant Professor of Religion and Science, Florida International University""Another gem! Anne Primavesi''s gift is her ability to show us how and where our thinking about our relationship with earth went wrong. In this new book she helps us see that the earth is not our property to use and exploit. She reminds us we are earthlings, whose destiny is intimately connected to the health of a living earth.""--Carol P. Christ, author of She Who Changes and Green Party Candidate, GreeceAnne Primavesi is presently a Fellow of the Westar Institute and Jesus Seminar, Willamette University, Salem, Oregon, and has authored Sacred Gaia (2000); Gaia''s Gift (2003); Making God L

First-timeTranslation in English- - - The relationship between Christians and Jews has often been very tense, with misunderstandings of Paul''s teachings contributing to the problem. Jacques Ellul''s careful exegesis of Romans 9-11 demonstrates how God has not rejected Israel. The title is taken from the verse, ""Is there some injustice in God?"" The answer is a clear ""no."" God''s election simply expanded outward beyond Israel to reach all peoples of the earth. In the end, there will be a reconciliation of Jews and Christians within God''s plan of salvation.Written in 1991, three years before Ellul died, An Unjust God? brings a new understanding to a section of Scripture known for its conventional and limited interpretations. One significant feature of the book is Ellul''s personal experience of the suffering of Jews under the Nazi regime; and this has direct bearing for the way he links the sufferings of Israel with the sufferings of Jesus. Ellul is then bold enough to say that a major reason why the Jewish people have not accepted Jesus as Messiah is because the Christian Church has not done well to emulate the Jewish Savior of the world.""Unfazed by the deeply rutted and predictably interpretive pathways established in Romans 9-11, Ellul is massively open to hearing what God might actually be saying.""--From the Foreword by David W. Gill, President of International Jacques Ellul Society""Jacques Ellul reads the Scriptures closely, consequently getting surprising--and brilliant--insights that stun us. I don''t always agree with his conclusions, but he always stimulates me to contemplate afresh. May this book propel us all to cherish Israel and its biblical task more wholly.""--Marva Dawn, editor and translator of Sources and Trajectories: Eight Early Articles by Jacques Ellul that Set the StageJacques Ellul (1912-1994), a French sociologist and lay theologian, was Professor Emeritus of Law and of the History and Sociology of Institutions at the University of Bordeaux. He wrote more than forty books, including The Technological Society, The Humiliation of the Word, and Technological Bluff.

The various studies presented in this anthology underscore the foundational matter of translation in biblical studies as understood from the specific perspective of Biblical Performance Criticism. If the assumption for the biblical messages being received is not individual silent reading, then the question becomes, how does this public performative mode of communication affect the translation of this biblical material? Rather than respond to this in general theoretical terms, most in this collection of articles offer specific applications to particular Hebrew and Greek passages of Scripture. Almost all the authors have firsthand experience with the translation of biblical materials into non-European languages in communities who maintain a vibrant oral tradition. The premise is that the original Scriptures, which were composed in and for performance, are being prepared again for live audiences who will receive these sacred texts, not primarily in printed form, but first and foremost in community by means of oral and visual media. This volume is an invitation for others to join us in researching more intensely this intersection of sound, performance, and translation in a contemporary communication of the Word.""This wonderful introduction to biblical performance criticism draws on recent work in oral cultures and translation studies to show how the Bible as performed opens up new understandings of the Bible and audience, offering important perspectives on questions of fidelity and community. Each of the contributions advances the thesis; together they situate the discussion in widely divergent, intercultural settings to offer a helpful and engaging discussion.""--Paul A. Soukup, Professor of Communication, Santa Clara University""This is a captivating introduction to the power of performance criticism in the areas of biblical interpretation and translation. It offers a balance between the highly theoretical and the eminently practical. Biblical scholars should take the risk of reading this most stimulating book that, no doubt, will enrich the established fields of biblical hermeneutics and translation.""--Esteban Voth, Head of Translation, United Bible Societies""Books abound on translation of the biblical text. The essays in this book take the conversation in critical, new directions by exploring the dynamic relationship between translation and performance. It represents essential reading for anyone interested in, not only these two areas, but the nature of the biblical text and communication theory."" --Holly E. Hearon, Professor of Christian Traditions, Christian Theological Seminary""Well written, authoritative, and suitable for classroom use, this fine collection of essays on biblical performance criticism belongs on the bookshelf of every serious Bible scholar and translator. Editors James Maxey and Ernst Wendland, together with their learned contributors, deserve our thanks for again making it plain that without an understanding of the Bible''s original oral and scribal culture, our learned elevator goes only halfway to the top.""--Robert Hodgson, Jr., Dean Emeritus, Nida Institute""This is a welcome contribution to understanding the complex interaction of sound, performance, and communication strategies in the attempt to effectively translate Scripture for contemporary audiences. Read and be challenged!""--Bryan Harmelink, International Coordinator, SIL International TranslationJAMES A. MAXEY is Translations and Biblical Scholar at the Nida Institute for Biblical Scholarship at American Bible Society. He is Dean of Admissions for the Nida School of Translation Studies and Managing Editor of the journal, Translation. His first book, From Orality to Orality, is published by Cascade Books in the Biblical Performance Criticism series.

No Longer Bound is about the intersection of reading comprehension and interpretation that leads to the development of a powerful and transformative sermon. Reading facilitates the interpretive process, which is the essence of any sermon. The sermon is an interpretation of an interpretation and as such presents itself as a new gospel message. The ability to write and preach a sermon is an exercise in freedom. The book is grounded in a narrative theological form that begins with the author''s experience and filters that experience through the lens of hermeneutic philosophy and theology. Reading and preaching constitute the thread that runs throughout the book. The book suggests that the sermon is the philosophic theology of Black practical religion inasmuch as the Black church is central to religion and culture. This is a fresh and new understanding of homiletics, philosophical theology, and interpretation theory that is intended to produce better preachers and more powerful and life-changing sermons by all who endeavor to preach.""James Henry Harris is the only preacher and professor I know who can so easily blend together in one book the plaintive messages of American slave songs of the nineteenth century, the rigorous inquiry of European philosophy of the twentieth century, and the challenges confronting black preachers in the twenty-first century. . . . All preachers would do well to read this challenging and insightful book and apply its lessons to their pulpit ministry!""--Marvin A. McMickle, President and Professor of Church Leadership, Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School""So much more than a great book on the art of the sermon--and it is that!--James Henry Harris has given us a fully realized theology of dialogue and liberation. In astonishingly deft and astute ways, he juxtaposes his own autobiography with commentaries on philosophical theology, literature, postmodern society, and life in diverse African American communities. A fine, critical work of narrative art in its own right, No Longer Bound guides us--issue by issue, question by question--into the passion of ''preaching as an act of love.''""--Larry D. Bouchard, Professor of Religious Studies, University of Virginia""Here is a compelling, multi-leveled account of preaching in the Black church, integrating biography, Scripture study, homiletics, philosophy, and theology. Harris tells the story of his dual African American legacies: of slavery and racism on one side, and redemptive preaching on the other. He gleans a theology of preaching from his years as a professor of homiletics, as a pulpit preacher, and as an activist for civil rights and religious freedom. . . . It is an intellectually spicy and soulful account of how preaching the word can liberate the spirit.""--Peter W. Ochs, Professor of Modern Judaic Studies, University of Virginia""This is a deeply personal book. James Henry Harris weaves threads from his rich life of ministry and learning, all lived out against the backdrop of a racially charged land, into a beautiful tapestry of faithful and courageous preaching. Harris manages to bring a host of strong thinkers helpfully into the conversation--Cone and Ricoeur, Derrida and Dubois, and many others--without ever losing the clear and confident sound of his own voice.""--Thomas G. Long, Professor of Preaching, Candler School of Theology, Emory UniversityJames Henry Harris is Professor and Chair of Preaching and Pastoral Theology at Virginia Union University and Senior Minister at the Second Baptist Church, both in Richmond, Virginia. He is the author of The Word Made Plain (2004) and Preaching Liberation (1996). He is a recipient of the Henry Luce III Fellowship in Theology and a past president of the Academy of Homiletics.

As the world watched the biggest global epidemic in history evolve, many anticipated that Christians would embrace those who were affected just as Jesus during his time embraced those who were sick and dying. Mostly, the Christian church stood back and observed. Sometimes Christians responded with stigma and discrimination. Many who sought refuge in the churches--churches where they had served the sick and the poor--were turned away as they now sought refuge for themselves and their children. Individual authors address the critical issues related to the HIV epidemic, women, and the Christian church: how the HIV epidemic affected so many women and children; what the Old and New Testaments teach about our responsibility to the poor, the needy, the sick, the widow, and the orphan; and how difficult it should be for Christians to ignore these teachings. The HIV epidemic continues, and millions of women and children bear a disproportionate share of the pain and suffering without a refuge. Although HIV is a specific disease, it serves as a paradigm for all Christians to ask what other needs they may be ignoring.""I will never forget Joanna, the first woman I met who was dying from AIDS. She was living under a tree, having been expelled from her rural village in Mozambique because of stigma. Where was the church of Jesus Christ in her terrible suffering? Women, HIV, and the Church urgently calls us in the global church to act on behalf of the millions of other ''Joannas'' who desperately need compassion and practical assistance from those who name his name.""--Kay Warren, Founder of HIV&AIDS Initiative, Saddleback Church""Whether in the ghettos of America or the bush villages of Africa, the church has failed to meet Jesus''s standards for caring. Ammann and colleagues alert us to the ''feminization of AIDS'' and call the church of Christ to meet their needs the way Jesus would.""--Diane M. Komp, MD, Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics at Yale University""In the pages of this book, I found a compelling invitation to go deep. The authors have successfully navigated the delicate balance of solid, scholarly work and accessibility for readers across a wide spectrum of the church who want practical, tangible, and compassionate engagement with women living with HIV.""--Paul B. Tshihamba, Pastor of Mission Christ Presbyterian ChurchArthur J. Ammann is Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center. He is the founder of Global Strategies for HIV Prevention. Ammann became interested in HIV when it was discovered in 1981. Throughout the world, and particularly in resource-poor countries, he has conducted research and directed programs for women and children on HIV prevention and care. Ammann has published numerous articles and essays on these subjects. He is the coeditor (with Arye Rubinstein) of Prevention and Treatment of HIV Infection in Infants and Children.Julie Ponsford Holland has been a freelance copyeditor and writer for 17 years, working for ad agencies, publishers, and individuals. She earned an MA in orientation and mobility, allowing her to teach travel skills to those with visual impairments.

Human embryos, it has been said, ""have no muscles, nerves, digestive system, feet, hands, face, or brain; they have nothing to distinguish them as a human being, and if one of them died, no one would mourn as they would for one of us."" Consequently, early human embryos are being dismembered in laboratories around the world to produce embryonic stem cells, which, we are told, are the tools that will lead to the next quantum leap in medicine. Should Christians support such small sacrifices for something that might potentially relieve the suffering of millions, or should we vigorously oppose it?Developmental biologist and professor of biochemistry Michael Buratovich was asked such a question (among others) by his students. This book contains his measured answers and provides support from the scientific literature to substantiate his claims. He shows that embryonic stem cells are unnecessary, since the renaissance in regenerative medicine is occurring largely without them. Furthermore, he sets forth the scientific and historic case that the embryo is the youngest and most vulnerable member of humanity, and that ones such as these are precisely those whom the Christian church worked to protect in the past--and should champion in the present.""In order to make the case for ethical advancements in science, we must understand science, which can seem like a daunting task. Michael Buratovich does a great service for his readers by inviting us into the conversations he has with his students. Using a helpful and easy-to-understand question-and-answer format, he clearly explains the science, what is at stake, and why it matters.""--Jennifer Lahl, The Center for Bioethics and Culture""For many, our information on stem cells is as old as the 2004 presidential election when it was the hotly debated issue that inspired false and irresponsible promises, and social conservatives were accused of denying the disabled their dreams of being well. Now, thanks to Michael Buratovich, we have no excuse for being misinformed. Accurate and encouraging about ethical medical advances where appropriate, The Stem Cell Epistles is accessible, interesting, and the new go-to source on stem cell bioethics.""--John Stonestreet, Colson Center for Christian Worldview and Summit Ministries""Written as a series of responses to questions, this book skillfully combines a strong moral argument, rooted in Christian tradition, against the use of embryonic stem cells with clear and detailed scientific exposition of the basics of human embryology. It offers particularly valuable descriptions of the successes and possibilities of alternatives to the use of embryonic stem cells. Anyone interested in this complex moral matter should find the book extraordinarily helpful.""--Fritz Oehlschlaeger, Virginia Polytechnic Institute""This is a rare book. Buratovich brings to this issue not only his own expertise as a scientist, but awareness that philosophical and theological questions percolate beneath the scientific questions. Not only that, his answers exhibit the twin virtues that all good writing and thinking should exhibit: charity and clarity.""--Francis J. Beckwith, Baylor University""Buratovich has provided a helpful discussion on a variety of longstanding as well as emerging controversies on bioethics. He consults ancient and modern voices from ethics, philosophy, and theology and lays them aside current discoveries and developments in biological science. . . . The result is a splendid, comprehensive, and detailed treatment of abortion, personhood, stem cell research, and cloning. He does it with fairness, sensitivity, and objectivity--those graces missing from much of public discourse.""--Mark Van Valin, Pastor, Spring Arbor Free Methodist ChurchLong version of Mark Van Valin''s endorsement:""Mike Buratovich has provided a helpful discussion on a variety of longstanding as well as emerging controversies on bioethics. He consults both ancient and moder

The contributors to this book address the theme of educating ethical leaders for the twenty-first century. They represent a wide range of fields, including philosophy, theology, law, science, and medicine. They all share the belief, however, that ethical leadership education is necessary in order to provide the next generation of leaders with the tools that they will need to successfully navigate the challenges of today and of the coming decades. These essays identify significant issues and challenges confronting leaders, students, and educators from many different backgrounds, cultures, and communities, who must negotiate the difficult matters of tolerance, respect, and appreciation of difference; and the development of ethical student leaders and educators within specific environments, who will promote habits and practices that create communities of discourse and practice that address the challenges of diversity and culture.Contributors:Derek BellWalter Earl FlukerShirley Ann JacksonJames A. JosephMelvinia KingPreston KingBryant MarksWalter E. MasseyDavid SatcherTavis Smiley""Educating Ethical Leaders for the Twenty-First Century is a prescient collection of essays written by distinguished leaders in academia, law, medicine, and contemporary culture. The essayists provide thoughtful and challenging examples of ethical dilemmas facing leaders and communities in the decades ahead. It is fascinating and a privilege to watch as these notable leaders grapple with the ''issues of integrity, empathy, and hope as moral indices for ethical leadership.'' A must-read for anyone preparing for or exercising leadership in the twenty-first century.""--Debra Harden, Professional Development Director, Georgia School Superintendents AssociationWalter Earl Fluker is the Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor of Ethical Leadership and the editor of The Howard Thurman Papers Project at Boston University School of Theology. He is author of Ethical Leadership: The Quest for Character, Civility, and Community (2009) and editor of The Papers of Howard Washington Thurman, Volume 1: My People Need Me (2009) and Volume 2, ""Christian, Who Calls Me Christian?"" (2012).

The challenges and changes that take place when religions move from one cultural context to another present unique opportunities for interreligious dialogue. In new cultural environments religions are not only propelled to enter into dialogue with the traditional or dominant religion of a particular culture; religions are also invited to enter into dialogue with one another about cultural changes. In this volume, scholars from different religious traditions discuss the various types of dialogue that have emerged from the process of acculturation. While the phenomenon of religious acculturation has generally focused on Western religions in non-Western contexts, this volume deals predominantly with the acculturation in the United States. It thus offers a fresh look at the phenomenon of acculturation while also lifting up an often implicit or ignored dimension of interreligious dialogue.""In a world becoming increasingly pluralistic, culturally and religiously, this book provides a generous assembly of leading scholars addressing the invariable need for effective and enduring interreligious and intercultural dialogue. This book is a rich resource for students and scholars . . . both in the academy and in different religious circles.""--Marinus C. Iwuchukwu, Duquesne University""This fourth volume in Cornille''s impressive series on interreligious dialogue demonstrates the extent to which religious identity is not only conditioned by cultural realities, but how very often it is self-consciously responsive to them. This relationship . . . drives the reader to interrogate the most basic categories we use and reify despite the ample historical and contemporary evidence of cultural change, adaptation, and growth in identity.""--John N. Sheveland, Gonzaga University""Timely and informative, this book discusses interreligious dialogue in the contexts of the search for cultural identity, assimilation and acculturation, and religious pluralism in the United States. Written by experts in the field, [it] is valuable for both scholars and general readers. I highly recommend it.""--Kwok Pui-lan, Episcopal Divinity SchoolCatherine Cornille is Professor of Comparative Theology at Boston College. She is author of The Im-Possibility of Interreligious Dialogue (2008) and managing editor of the series Christian Commentaries on Non-Christian Sacred Texts. She is editor of Song Divine (2006), Many Mansions? (2002), and A Universal Faith? (1992).Stephanie Corigliano is a doctoral candidate in Comparative Theology at Boston College, working in the area of Hindu-Christian dialogue.

Karl Barth''s Christology provides a key to out-narrating the Deus absconditus, which, as Rustin Brian contends, is in fact the god of modernity. Included in this is the rejection of the logical and philosophical systems that allow for the modern understanding of God as the Deus absconditus, namely, dialectics and nominalism. This rejection is illustrated, interestingly enough, in Barth''s decision to literally cover up, with a rug, Martin Luther''s works in his personal library. Surely this was more than a decorative touch.The reading of Barth''s works that results from this starting point challenges much of contemporary Barth scholarship and urges readers to reconsider Barth. Through careful examination of a large body of Barth''s writings, particularly in regard to the issues of the knowledge or knowability of God, as well as Christology, Brian argues that contemporary Barth scholarship should be done in careful conversation with the finest examples of both Protestant and, especially, Roman Catholic theology. Barth''s paradoxical Christology thus becomes the foundation for a dogmatic ecumenicism. Barth''s Christology, then, just might be able to open up possibilities for discussion and even convergence, within a church that is anything but one.""This book is a significant contribution to the lively conversation between Christian theology and postmodernity. Perhaps Brian''s most trenchant insight is that Karl Barth''s quarrel with Martin Luther in regards to the Deus absconditus parallels postmodernity''s critique of typically modern conceptions of God, entertained by believers and non-believers alike. Thus, the greatest Protestant theologian of the twentieth century shows the path toward dialogue with the dominant cultural form of the twenty-first century. Brian''s text is lively, provocative, well-written, and compellingly argued.""--Robert Barron, author of The Priority of Christ""Rather than accepting well-worn interpretations of Barth (and Luther), Brian breaks fresh ground with a provocative--and for that reason all the more interesting--interpretation. Barth was not a dialectical theologian indebted to a Lutheran Deus absconditus. Instead, he was a theologian of the glorious paradox of the fullness of God present in Christ. . . . Brian''s book marks an important contribution for a new direction in Barth studies.""--D. Stephen Long, author of Keeping Faith""In this ecumenically important book, Brian argues that Karl Barth is best regarded as a transitional figure who crucially helped open up the current, post-Protestant era in theology by breaking with the tropes of nominalism and voluntarism, which had imprisoned the mainline Reformation and distorted their grasp of orthodox Christology. He makes a convincing case that requires to be taken seriously.""--John Milbank, author of Being ReconciledRustin E. Brian is an ordained Pastor in the Church of the Nazarene, currently pastoring Renton Church of the Nazarene in Renton, WA, and Adjunct Professor of Theology at Northwest Nazarene University and Seattle Pacific University. He is the author of Covering Up Luther: How Barth''s Christology Challenged the Deus Absconditus that Haunts Modernity (2013).

Humor smiles and chuckles and sometimes laughs so loud in virtually every book of the Bible, so it''s remarkable how readers manage to overlook it. It''s also unfortunate. Humor graces biblical texts at so many levels that to miss the humor is to miss not only much of the emotional impact of the Bible, but much of its meaning. Illuminating Humor of the Bible shows how--and how much--comic elements contribute to understanding the most vital book in our culture. Biblical humor has been seriously underestimated. We have not begun to appreciate why humor winks with such unexpected frequency and understated significance from this revered text. It''s time to shine a spotlight on scriptural wit to illuminate the ways humor refracts biblical meaning. Unveiled by the frank perspective of humor, Bible texts reveal implications that will surprise the most informed readers. The reader-response lamp of humor lights up dark corners of biblical significance inaccessible until now. Awareness of the irony and wit and satire and slapstick enables not just better readings, but better ways to read. Go where no Bible reader has gone before. Try eight fresh and relevant methods of reading the Bible better through the lens of its humor.""There is nothing here of slapstick or cheap stuff. Rather, this humor concerns the mocking of Jonah and the reversal of Esther. Such humor subverts commonplace assumptions about our ordered, controlled world. Walker is a good reader who shows us how much we have yet to learn about the text and how much we have yet to unlearn.""--Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary""Illuminating Humor of the Bible is a gift to the careful and caring reader. Walker''s love for the Bible--not for the traditional, life-dampening interpretations so many foist upon the unsuspecting, but the actual biblical text--shines through on each page, living up to the title in every way. Walker sees the text with fresh, enthusiastic eyes that dare to have a twinkle in them.""--Charles Swift, Brigham Young University""Many readers don''t see humor in the Bible, often because they don''t expect it or don''t know how to look for it. . . . Walker''s solid, often detailed treatment will reward those willing to explore by identifying where the humor is, how it works, and how it can surprise us with new insights about living.""--Howard R. Macy, George Fox UniversitySteve Walker is Professor of English at Brigham Young University, where he has taught The Bible as Literature for forty-seven years. He earned a PhD in literature at Harvard and studied at the Divinity School there. His twelve books include Christian Fantasy: Tolkien and Lewis (1980), Mourning with Those Who Mourn (1999), and Seven Ways of Looking at Susanna (1986).

Lovescapes introduces the reader to the various meanings and manifestations of love and its many cognates such as compassion, caring, altruism, empathy, and forgiveness. It addresses how love and compassion have been understood in history and the religions of the world. It goes on to explore the ways that our environments and heredity influence our capacity to love and suggests ways to cultivate love and compassion in one''s life. The book shows how the values of love and compassion are integral to finding humane solutions to the daunting problems we face as individuals, as a human family, and as an earth community--a world in crisis.Lovescapes has the following features:-Describing how love is the essence of the divine, and therefore the ground of reality-Understanding the meaning of love and its place in our lives-Learning how love and compassion have been understood across history, culture, and tradition-Gaining insight about how to increase our capacity to love and show compassion-Discerning how love and compassion can be applied in all aspects of our lives, in the regions where we live, and in our global setting.""What is love and how do we distinguish it from infatuation and destructive feelings? Now, in Lovescapes, Duncan Ferguson explores the cultural and historical understandings of love, inviting readers to invest in ''the love-centered life.'' Perceiving that ''love and compassion are very complex human experiences,'' Ferguson . . . provides us with an extremely important book.""--James H. Charlesworth, Director and Editor, Princeton Dead Sea Scrolls Project""Lovescapes not only provides a lucid and comprehensive account of pertinent literature--from biblical, classical, and Western and Eastern sources, to contemporary studies in psychology, social theory, theology, philosophy, and biology--it is also filled with fresh and important insights as to ways love and compassion can inform and transform both interpersonal relations and our responses to the urgent crises facing our national and global communities today.""--Richard H. Hiers, Professor of Religion Emeritus and Affiliate Professor of Law Emeritus, University of Florida""Duncan Ferguson is a wise and creative thinker who has gained profound insight into the meaning of being human through a distinguished career of teaching, writing, and travel. In Lovescapes he gives us his most thoughtful reflection on the fundamental issues of life in our day. It moves beyond platitudes and explores love in its global as well as personal dimensions. This book penetrates the heart of the matter.""--Mark Valeri, Professor of Church History, Union Presbyterian Seminary ""Lovescapes coordinates several frameworks for understanding the contours and complexities of love. Theologically grounded, sensitively interfaith, and broadly humanist, this book provides a hopeful vision for healing on personal, communal, societal, and global levels through the transformative power of love. The call to maturity offered here makes a significant contribution to people of goodwill who work to make the world a better, more human place.""--Gordon S. Mikoski, Associate Professor of Christian Education, Princeton Theological SeminaryDuncan S. Ferguson has served in the church and higher education as a chaplain, professor, and senior administrator. He received his PhD from the University of Edinburgh and has published several articles and five books, including Exploring the Spirituality of the World Religions. He was a Visiting Scholar at Princeton Theological Seminary in 2010 during which he worked on Lovescapes. He is currently engaged in several issues related to international peace and justice.

""Christianity, as faith centered in Jesus as the Christ came to be called, got a foothold in the world, and for a vital and vocal minority changed the world, because it proclaimed a message that awakened men and women to possibilities for human life that they had either lost or never entertained. That message the first Christian evangelists (and Jesus himself, according to the record) called euangellion--good news, gospel. For its first two or three hundred years, Christianity was largely dependent for its existence upon the new zest for life that was awakened in persons who heard and were, as they felt, transformed, by that gospel; and at various and sundry points in subsequent history the Christian movement has found itself revitalized by the spirit of that same ''good news'' in ways that spoke to the specifics of their times and places.""The lesson of history is clear: the challenge to all serious Christians and Christian bodies today is not whether we can devise yet more novel and promotionally impressive means for the transmission of ''the Christian religion'' (let alone this or that denomination); it is whether we are able to hear and to proclaim . . . gospel! We do not need statisticians and sociologists to inform us that religion--and specifically our religion, as the dominant expression of the spiritual impulse of homo sapiens in our geographic context--is in decline. We do not need the sages of the new atheism to announce in learned tomes (and on buses!) that ''God probably does not exist.'' The ''sea of faith'' has been ebbing for a very long time."" --from the Introduction""Douglas John Hall is a treasure, a man I have known whose intellectual depth is matched only by his spirit of kindness. . . . So too is Waiting for Gospel. As people continue to discuss the place of the church in North America leaning on sociology and cultural studies, Doug Hall reminds us that in the end it will be only theology, a lived theology of existential depth, that will help. All the contemporary talk of church in North America has so often failed to provide truly unique and insightful thoughts . . . about how God''s revelation in Jesus Christ is encountering people in this context, at this time. Waiting for Gospel propels us in that direction and therefore shines brightly, giving the reader value upon value.""--Andrew RootOlson Baalson Associate Professor of Youth and Family Ministry, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MinnesotaAuthor of The Promise of Despair: The Way of the Cross as the Way of the Church (2010)Douglas John Hall is Emeritus Professor of Christian Theology in the Faculty of Religious Studies of McGill University in Montreal. He is the author of more than twenty-five books, including Lighten Our Darkness (1976, 2001); Why Christian? (1998); God and Human Suffering (1986); The Steward (1990; Wipf & Stock, 2004); and The Messenger (Cascade Books, 2011).He has lectured widely in Canada, the United States, Germany, and Japan, and is the recipient of many honors, including the Distinguished Alumnus Award of Union Theological Seminary, the Joseph Sittler Award for Leadership in Theology, and the Order of Canada.

The interdependence of boundary questions and the experience of cognitive dissonance reveal that knowledge in all fields of inquiry is always incomplete and tentative. The issues are particularly acute for Christian theological reflection. Ingram illustrates the importance of boundary questions and cognitive dissonance as a means of creatively transforming contemporary Christian theological reflection through dialogue with the natural sciences and the world''s religions, particularly Buddhism, filtered through the lenses of Whiteheadian process philosophy.""In a religiously plural world, theologians have been struggling to recognize this pluralism as they do their theological work. It happens less often that historians of religion articulate their theology out of their work and their findings. In this book, directly, clearly, and boldly, Paul Ingram does so, sometimes breaking new ground in the process.""-John B. Cobb JrProfessor EmeritusClaremont School of Theology ""Paul Ingram is one of relatively few Christian systematic theologians to synthesize reflections from his work in interreligious dialogue (especially the Buddhist-Christian exchange) and from his study of the ongoing exchange between philosophically oriented natural scientists and scientifically minded Christian philosophers/theologians. The present book represents the latest stage in his thinking on these matters. As Ingram himself comments, the experience of cognitive dissonance in comparing and contrasting quite different points of view on foundational issues may be often quite unsettling, but it seems to be the only way to keep growing intellectually, morally, and spiritually.""-Joseph A. Bracken, SJEmeritus Professor of TheologyXavier University""In Theological Reflections at the Boundaries, Paul Ingram challenges his readers to ask of themselves, ''Who do you say that I am?'' in relation to the questions of Christian identity in a global society of religious pluralism, in a world increasingly defined by science and technology, and in a deep manner in terms of what it really means to be a human being. Most of all, though, he does this by asking himself this question, and by so doing, shares his journey and points the way.""-Mark UnnoAssociate Professor of East Asian ReligionsUniversity of OregonPaul O. Ingram is Professor Emeritus of Religion at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington. He is the author of Wrestling with God (Cascade Books, 2006) and The Process of Buddhist-Christian Dialogue (Cascade Books, 2009).